ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s stock market saw some buying interest return following a downwards trend, brokers said.
“We saw a sizable bounce back [in the market],” Dimantha Mathew, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at First Capital Holdings PLC, told EconomyNext.
“Lot of blue chips were involved, including banks.”
Buying interest was coming into the market after significant decline in indices, brokers said.
The broader ASPI closed up 1.67 percent, or 256.69 points, at 15,662.85; while the more liquid S&P SL20 Index closed up 2.14 percent, or 98.33 points, at 4,703.54.
“Some level of confidence is coming back into the market,” Mathew said.
“Over the years, towards the end of the financial year we see an upward trend.”
Turnover jumped in the session to 3.67 billion rupees from 1.25 billion rupees in the previous session; the second highest so far this month. Share volume rose to 197,016,452.
“Banking is a sector that had the most bounce back.”
Top contributors to the ASPI were Commercial Bank (ended 2.7 percent stronger at 142.50 rupees), HNB (rose 1.9 to 309.50 rupees), John Keells (up 2.0 percent to 20.50 rupees), Sampath Bank (closed up 1.7 percent at 120.75 rupees) and DFCC (Up 3.9 percent at 105.75 rupees).
Major contributors to turnover were capital goods (2 billion rupees), diversified financials (584 million rupees) and bank industry (317 million rupees) stocks.
Sierra Cables (1.8 billion rupees), Central Finance Company (43 million rupees) and Sampath Bank (67 million rupees) recorded high turnover.
There was a net foreign outflow of 35 million rupees.
Most active volumes were seen Sierra Cables in at 145,651,118 (turnover 1,803,983,624.80 rupees), John Keells Holdings at 7,919,770 (turnover 160,255,727.40 rupees), Browns Investments at 6,724,259 (turnover 49,721,699.00 rupees) and Hela Apparel at 4,776,209 (turnover 18,976,854.90 rupees). (Colombo/Mar20/2025)
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